Krakauer Plays Zorn

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Clarinetist David Krakauer, praised internationally for his astounding ability to play in a myriad of music genres with “prodigious chops” (The New Yorker) and “soulfulness and electrifying showiness” (The New York Times) presents Krakauer Plays Zorn at Drom -- the first concert of DK55, a series of concerts in New York celebrating Krakauer’s 55th birthday. Krakauer occupies the unique position of being both one of the world’s leading exponents of Eastern European Jewish klezmer music, plus a major voice in classical music and avant-garde improvisation. His klezmer sound has been described by RootsWorld as “an electrifying amalgam of cozy Eastern European traditions, free-form jazz, and dissonant howls of rage and pain ... a bittersweet statement of personal and collective race memory.”

Krakauer Plays Zorn consists of tunes selected especially for David Krakauer to play by John Zorn from his milestone work, The Book of Angels, interspersed with Krakauer’s own klezmer-inspired originals and mash-ups that comment on the Zorn material and relate to Krakauer’s long-standing relationship with Zorn’s Radical Jewish Culture scene (RJC). The Book of Angels is the second book of 300 songs for Zorn’s band, Masada, composed over a period of a few months in 2004. Krakauer has been closely associated with Zorn’s RJC movement since its beginning in the early 1990s. He initially came to Zorn’s attention through his pioneering work with the Klezmatics in the late 80s. In 1992 he was invited to be part of the premiere of Zorn's epic composition Kristallnacht at Art Projekt 1992 in Munich. This event plus the subsequent release of a commercial recording of the piece launched the concept of Radical Jewish Culture. Soon after, Krakauer was given the singular honor of releasing the first record in the RJC series on Zorn's then-budding Tzadik label; the record – Klezmer Madness! – was also the first that Krakauer recorded under his own name.